So in May 2011, when Southwest Airlines finalized a deal to absorb low-cost carrier AirTran Airways, Johnson knew the airport needed to bring out the big guns to prove Grand Rapids' worth lest Southwest decide to take its business elsewhere.

"When they formalized the merger last year in May of 2011, we had been working night and day in trying to convince Southwest that they needed to stay here," Johnson said.

Enter big West Michigan names like Dick DeVos, founder and chairman of the Regional Air Alliance of West Michigan, who Johnson said headed up a coalition of business and community leaders to illustrate how the area could be an asset for Southwest.

The nonprofit air alliance, at DeVos' behest, teamed up with economic development firm The Right Place and others to give Southwest executives "hard data," such as employment and economic activity numbers for the region, Johnson said.

Dick DeVos

The groups previously had worked to bring AirTran to Ford Airport in spring 2010, and once more would set out demonstrating that Grand Rapids is worth Southwest's time and money.

"To be frank, we were not expecting an announcement quite this soon, based on our prior discussions with Southwest," DeVos said. "They made a great decision going forward because West Michigan represents such a great market opportunity for them."

As Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins put it, Grand Rapids "made the cut." The airline has yet to announce when AirTran operations at Ford Airport will switch to Southwest.

"We recognize that there was an enormous amount of angst," Hawkins said. "Southwest does not enter into markets lightly. We've never exited a market in modern times. It's not the way we operated things in the past."

To be sure, there were more "haves" than have-nots, with 53 of the 69 cities AirTran has served making the transition.

AirTran service was eliminated entirely in cities including Lexington, Ky., and Sarasota, Fla. Hawkins said the decision to leave a market was predicated on the rising cost of fuel.

"Grand Rapids definitely has been an attraction for us with the assets of AirTran," Hawkins said. "It's been on our radar, if not our map, for years, along with most of these other cities."

But despite this, Southwest "never pulled the trigger" before now, said DeVos.

"It was really because we sort of had our foot in the door thru the AirTran experience that they got a snapshot of this market's potential," he said. "I think this was the key ingredient that allowed this to happen."